Problem being, prisons are almost always last on the funding circuit.. Politicians would much rather throw money at their pork projects and the military than a bunch of people society doesn’t like. It’s very nice to *say* ‘Prisoners need to be rehabilitated’, but the instant you say ‘We’d need to raise taxes’, the public is at your door with torches and pitchforks. Personally, I’d be willing to cough up an extra fifty bucks a year if it meant nobody released from a prison would commit a crime, but not everyone is foresighted.

I do agree that there needs to be more separation of criminals. Here in California, you could go by the number of ‘strikes’ a person has, and assign them facilities accordingly. You’d think they could slip something into the water to make the prisoners less frisky, too..

Personally, I’ve always felt that the death penalty needed some reworking. As it stands now, a death row inmate can be in prison for years, if not *decades* before having an appointment with the preist. Limiting appeals and executing criminals within one year of conviction would greatly ease the financial burden. Of course, the downside being that it’s possible for innocent people to be executed easier this way..

One thing I’d thought of would be replacing the death penalty with the oubliette: Drop the condemmed into a small cell, and forget about them. Food would be basically vitamin-riched kibble, dispensed automatically into a small trough, while another trough runs a bit of water for drinking and hygiene, leading to an open drain. Lighting is dim, but constant; no night or day. No television, conversation with other prisoners, or conjugal visits. The temperature is controlled, so they don’t even get clothes. No medical assistance or suicide watch, the only time anyone would come into the cell is when the infra-red sensors indicate that they’ve reached room temperature. The average person would probably go insane after a few months, and try to kill themselves, but that’s ok, since we no longer care about them.

In short, something *worse* than maximum security. Plus, you could drop anyone on LWOP or similar sentence into such a pit, as they’ve pretty much demonstrated they don’t deserve human contact. Yes, it’d probably be screamed as being cruel and unusual, but the anti-death-penalty activists would feel better. It would also make for one *hell* of a deterrent; tough guys will boast freely about not fearing death, but the prospect of total isolation and discomfort might cause them to think twice.

Signature

1: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. If it does what it says, you should have no problem with this.
2: What proof will you accept that you are wrong? You ask us to change our mind, but we cannot change yours?
3: It is not our responsability to disprove your claims, but rather your responsability to prove them.
4. Personal testamonials are not proof.

About two weeks ago, two of my friends and I were hired through our theater director as actors for a prison rape awareness video to be shown to guards and other people in the prison system. It really is absurd how little is done or even mentioned about this to guards and wardens given how widespread knowledge of the problem is.

One thing I’d thought of would be replacing the death penalty with the oubliette: Drop the condemmed into a small cell, and forget about them. Food would be basically vitamin-riched kibble, dispensed automatically into a small trough, while another trough runs a bit of water for drinking and hygiene, leading to an open drain. Lighting is dim, but constant; no night or day. No television, conversation with other prisoners, or conjugal visits. The temperature is controlled, so they don’t even get clothes. No medical assistance or suicide watch, the only time anyone would come into the cell is when the infra-red sensors indicate that they’ve reached room temperature. The average person would probably go insane after a few months, and try to kill themselves, but that’s ok, since we no longer care about them.

In short, something *worse* than maximum security. Plus, you could drop anyone on LWOP or similar sentence into such a pit, as they’ve pretty much demonstrated they don’t deserve human contact. Yes, it’d probably be screamed as being cruel and unusual, but the anti-death-penalty activists would feel better. It would also make for one *hell* of a deterrent; tough guys will boast freely about not fearing death, but the prospect of total isolation and discomfort might cause them to think twice.

Uh, torture won’t make the anti-death penalty people feel any better, in fact it’ll cause much more complaint. From me, for example, ya sick bastard.

One of the problems with prisons is that many are privately owned, so corrupt politicians try to arrange for ways to transfer money to their prison-owning buddies (such as arresting pot heads). Well, I have no evidence for this, but I’d bet on it.

Signature

Soldier: This is the worst part. The calm before the battle.
Fry: And then the battle is not so bad?
Soldier: Oh, right. I forgot about the battle.

Neh.. it’s not *active* torture. You’re putting them alone in a room, with the basic necessities, and nothing else. They *will* feel badly about what they did.

Still, you’re probably right. Even someone who rapes little kids before killing them deserves to be treated as a human being, not an animal.

Signature

1: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. If it does what it says, you should have no problem with this.
2: What proof will you accept that you are wrong? You ask us to change our mind, but we cannot change yours?
3: It is not our responsability to disprove your claims, but rather your responsability to prove them.
4. Personal testamonials are not proof.

Still, you’re probably right. Even someone who rapes little kids before killing them deserves to be treated as a human being, not an animal.

No they don’t, they gave up every right to be treated as an equal, human member of society when they destroyed the lives of not only the victim but the victim’s family and friends. Bring back intense labour. If you got all the really scummy prisoners to do jobs no-one else likes doing, like manually cleaning sewers or something (I couldn’t think of a suitable example!) then you could free up thousands of pounds/dollars in taxes.

Signature

“Never before in my time at the bar or on the bench have I ever had to deal with somebody who voluntarily allowed himself to be buggered by a dog on the public highway.”

I am a Correction Officer for the State of NY, and I can tell you, the general conception of prison life for inmates is very UNDER rated. They get better medical care than most people with Health plans that they pay nothing for…..you the TAXPAYER pays for it. They get better food served in the messhalls than they serve at homeless shelters. They don’t pay a dime for this food…you the TAXPAYER pays. ANd they don’t have to eat the messhall food. You see, they get paid a little bit every week for VERY little work, for ex., they get paid for three hours worth of work when they sweep a hallway for 15 minutes. Then, they go to the comissary, where they can get almost anything available at your local mini-mart, for in some cases, half the price YOU pay. In some facilities, they get to have TV’s and basic cable. In some facilities, they watch the brand new movies that come out on DVD EVERY SINGLE weekend.

These articles are almost always written by someone who has never set foot in a Correctional Facility, nor ever will. They take the words of some people, and twist them to make a story, like 90 % of the other mainstream media news stories.

Take it from someone who works in a facility….the inmates aren’t the ones you should be concerned for. It’s the hard working officers who put their lives on the line every single day they go into work, to keep these SCUMBAGS safe behind bars so they won’t rape your daughters, or molest your kids. We are there every day as men (and women) who take lives, sell drugs that ruin lives, and generally are not fit for society get better lives than half of the officers who work there because they can’t afford to live on the salary that they pay us.

Sorry for going on, but these “articles” ALWAYS irk me, because they do not do their research, and they pity the inmates.

Bring back intense labour. If you got all the really scummy prisoners to do jobs no-one else likes doing, like manually cleaning sewers or something (I couldn’t think of a suitable example!) then you could free up thousands of pounds/dollars in taxes.

Thousands of pounds that currently go to people who can’t get other jobs (otherwise they probably would have) and would end up as long-term unemployed, costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds. Plus you’d have to pay the guards extra to follow them.

Mind you, you could round up the lowest, vilest scum of the prison system and make them work as cold-callers. But I guess we’d have to offer them the chance of parole or something before they’d sink that low.

In the early 60s Timothy Leary experimented with giving prisoners LSD and found that it could dramatically lower recidivism rates. These experiments also succeeded in getting Leary fired from Harvard. I don’t think anyone has seriously considered his idea since then.